Belated
by KrysSaiyan
Summary: What could Starscream's ghost possibly want with Dinobot? BeastWars, crack pairing with substance. Warnings: non-con, Starscream being mentally unhinged.


It had started off badly. The both of them knew it, though which would admit to it was anyone's guess. It had started off, initially, at their first meeting, brief and painful though it had been, but the real kickoff had been months later.

Then, it had started off with a perimeter of sizzling organic carcasses.

Dinobot was on patrol, as typical, and covering sector 18. He didn't mind being on patrol. It gave him a chance to get away from the blithering Maximals, and Rattrap's particular stink. Being on patrol also gave him much-needed chances to stretch out and push himself, push his limits, and continue to hone his skills without Maximals trying to distract him.

So when he scented the burnt animal corpses, he chose to not call it in. All he needed was that pack of loud cretins trampling through the forest and alerting whatever was the _source_ of this anomaly that they were there. He transformed to robot mode and continued, sword undrawn but prepared.

There was no clearing, and the meager light that filtered through the tree leaves struck the tree trunks and ground at awkward, shimmering angles. Something made him stop advancing, and his hand lingered near the hilt of his sword.

"_Finally!_" the screech came from above, and forward. "I was getting so _bored_ waiting for you to take the bait!" Something shifted; weak sunlight glinted off red optic-glass, and Dinobot snarled, hand on his as-of-yet undrawn sword. When no shot was fired from the Predacon, he became suspicious.

"What game are you playing?" he growled, adjusting his vision for the low light once again, trying to catch a glimpse of who it was. The voice was not that of the regular crew of Megatron's, so then...?

"Game?" the voice crooned. "Well, yes, I do suppose it could be a _game_, and it's marvelously fun, but I'm not here to merely _play_, dear Dinobot." The source of the voice then leaned out from its perch on a tree branch and into a flickering shaft of light.

"_Waspinator_?" Dinobot rasped. The voice was not his, and suddenly it was identified. Dinobot's optics widened and this time he _did_ draw his sword.

"I'm insulted!" Starscream screeched back. "You don't remember me? You don't know who I am?"

"I know who you are!" Dinobot snapped. "And I'll send you hurtling _back_ into the cold depths of space!"

There was a barely perceptible shiver that went through Waspinator's-- Starscream's-- frame, and his optics lit more brightly.

"Hasty," Starscream hissed, vocal components rattling slightly. "I'm not here to fight."

Dinobot didn't lower his weapon, nor relax in the slightest.

"Now," Starscream continued in a higher, more cloying voice, lowering himself to the ground leisurely. "You know as well as I do that you can't destroy me. The best you can do is send me away for awhile again, and then I'll be back." The form leered, a feat considering Waspinator's limited facial expression, and leaned forward. "I'll be back," he repeated. "Back and back and back, until _you're_ nothing more than a rusted pile of scrap, and beyond, until the last star dies, and more."

"I see you've lost what little grasp you had on sanity," Dinobot commented dryly. Starscream paused, then tilted his head back and laughed. Dinobot didn't flinch, but he wanted to wince at the sound. It grated.

"Oh, I knew I made the right choice!" Starscream crowed once his laughter subsided. "See, we have something in common, you and I."

He paused, but Dinobot didn't take the bait. Starscream tried not to feel disappointed.

"We're both traitors," Starscream elaborated. Dinobot snorted.

"Hardly. I left in order to take command of the Maximals and live as a warrior ought. _You_, Starscream, are worse than a traitor. You couldn't even manage _that_ right."

Starscream screeched again, eyes glowing furiously. What little fauna had not already fled in the wake of his destructive boredom earlier, now took their leave with haste.

"And who are you to talk, Maximal pet?!" Starscream seethed, wings buzzing twitchily. Dinobot bristled.

"_Pet?!_" he roared. "You dare call me a _pet_?!"

"Worse than that!" Starscream continued, eyes calculating. "A slave. And willing, too! _Oh_, does the leash feel good, Maximal toy?"

Dinobot screeched this time, and charged. Starscream cackled gleefully and dodged vertically at the last second, dropping again directly on Dinobot's back and pinning him.

"I've been studying you," Starscream called out over the sound of Dinobot's vicious snarling and growling. "Fascinating, quite fascinating! But-" and Dinobot's snarling ended abruptly in a short, sharp screech as one of Starscream's extra appendages delved into his internals even as he was held largely immobile against the ground.

"- I have a few billion years experience on you, my pet."

Dinobot's struggles ceased, but the growling continued. He waited for the pain of his internal components to be ripped from him, wires cut and circuits torn apart. But it didn't come.

"There, there," Starscream crooned again, apparently sated when he again had control of the situation. "That's better. Much better. I had hoped to talk to you like a civilized mech, but apparently this primitive body has adverse affects on programming... hmph." The appendages inside him were brushing against things, and he involuntarily made a strangled sound. On his front, he couldn't see Starscream's smugness above him, but he could _feel_ it.

"I'm glad you're ready to listen," Starscream quipped. "Hmmm..." The weight on Dinobot's back increased, and he felt something wiggling where it shouldn't be near his chest. Starscream's voice was suddenly right behind his head.

"And you're wrong," it purred. Dinobot grunted.

"I suppose you'll enlighten m-!" Something touched the spot behind his spark chamber, and he froze.

"Good boy."

Dinobot dared not even growl now.

"As I was saying," Starscream continued. "You're wrong, and yet oh-so-right. We _are_ different sorts of traitors, but you've gotten the order all mixed up! You went and betrayed Megatron, an act I commend you for, make no doubt about that! But then you went and joined the other side." Starscream clicked, a 'tsk' sound. "You betrayed the cause, and that's the _worst_ sort of treachery. For all that I despised Megatron, _I_ never ran to the Autobots."

"I was going to take command of them! I-!"

"And yet, here you are! For all your best intentions, you've accomplished _nothing_. What does that say about your value as a Decepticon, hm?"

"We're _not_ Decepticons!" Dinobot argued, trying in vain to ignore the invasive feeling in his chest, the way his spark was pulsing so horribly close to something that could pierce it so easily. "We're Predacons! The Decepticons are all _dead_, how's that for value?"

Starscream hissed lowly, but it slowly morphed into a rumble, a buzzing purr.

"All but _me_," Starscream noted. Dinobot didn't reply. "You don't mean that anyway. You believe in the value of sacrifice for the cause. I dare say it's ingrained into your honor code, is it not?" Still nothing. After a moment: "I could teach you how to be a true Decepticon, you know."

Dinobot didn't so much as blink or refocus his optics- but his spark pulsed marginally faster in its casing. Starscream could easily feel it.

"Oh, _yes_," he murmured against the back of Dinobot's head. "I told you: I've been studying you. You've got quite the affinity for history, war history in particular. A brilliant tactician, there's no doubt about that..."

And as much as Dinobot chastised himself for it and resisted, he slowly warmed to the praise. He knew it was worthless praise, coming from the mouth of Starscream, but actually hearing the truth from another being, even though that being was trying to manipulate him, was... nice, somehow. In some twisted way.

"I read some of your work before you were marooned on this accursed planet," Starscream continued quietly. "I especially enjoyed your analysis of the Decepticon Code. Much more sensible analysis than the Maximals'. But, I must say, my favorite of your work..." Something was moving again inside Dinobot and he nearly jerked, it was going _towards_ his spark- "Was the piece suggesting a call-back to Decepticon ideals."

Dinobot's optics flickered off abruptly and his body stiffened as the spark casing around his life force was gently, oh-so-gently, scratched. The close resonance vibrated his spark gently, and he cried out sharply. The light from Starscream's optics was so bright that it was illuminating the ground like hellish spotlights and Dinobot could see it when he managed to turn his own optics back on. This time, he did growl.

"What are you _doing_?"

Starscream had the nerve to sound confused and shocked.

"What am I doing?" he asked. "I would think that would be obvious to such a clever mech..." Another touch, this time a stroke, had Dinobot hissing.

"Y-you're trying to persuade me by mean of ph-physical coercion?" he managed. Starscream hummed lightly.

"Clever. Good boy."

"I _won't_-"

"You _will_," Starscream interjected sharply, with a rough scrape against the casing. "You _will_, because you want to. Because you want to be _great_ and not just another member of the crew to some nobody who has taken another's name in the hope that names carry greatness attached to them. You don't want that." Another scratch, a softer touch following its same path. "You want _this_. You want to follow me, don't you? You know what I can teach you, show you." Something was tapping in a rhythm against the spark casing and Dinobot cried out again shortly. "You _will_, because you want it, and because _I chose you_."

Dinobot could feel his systems beginning to heat. He didn't trust his voice any more. And Starscream continued.

"And yet," he hissed, softer now, "What precisely have I chosen you for? That's the question..." It was obviously rhetorical, because he went silent for a while after that and the only sounds were then from Dinobot, whose internal coolant systems were whirring noisily.

"... Let me go." Dinobot said at length, focusing on making his voice steady. Starscream paused briefly and looked down at him in mild surprise.

"Why?"

"Be-cause," Dinobot ground out. "I will not yield to you. I'm a _Predacon_, and I'm not so stupid as to be fooled by your treachery."

Starscream grinned widely, though it didn't translate well in his current body.

"_That_, my pet," he crooned. "Proves more than ever that you are neither Predacon nor Maximal."

"Let me go!" Dinobot repeated, tensing again.

"No." He sounded entirely too gleeful for that one word. Dinobot snarled at him impotently, but that only made Starscream croon at him and manipulate his spark chamber again. The snarls abruptly turned sharp, almost squeals, like sheets of metal dragged against one another.

"How much more convincing do you need, I wonder?" Starscream mused. He paused. "Not that I really _need_ you convinced," he amended. "In fact, it'd be far more entertaining to watch you fight it the entire way." Dinobot was having trouble focusing on the words. Starscream seemed to not give a damn about it.

"Well?" the Decepticon asked silkily, pressing against the spark chamber. Dinobot hissed, but couldn't _not_ groan.

"I'll... _nngh_-not give you... the satisfaction of... _hahn_, of a fight," he managed. Starscream made a rapid clicking sound, and increased his attentions two-fold.

"Ohhhh," Starscream murmured, more to himself than the poor creature beneath him. "Stubborn, arrogant, rebellious little thing... I think I like you." Dinobot struggled faintly, feeling his systems speeding up when they shouldn't be, not under this scrapheap's twisted attentions.

"Hah!" he snorted. "A curse if ever there was-" It broke off in a squeal and Dinobot's optics dimmed to almost nothing. Damn it all, why did this abject failure of a traitor have to be so _persistent_?

"You can be quiet now," Starscream told him flatly, tracing glyphs on the spark casing, alternately tapping it at random intervals. Dinobot was hanging doggedly on to his stubborn pride, but it was rapidly becoming slick and difficult to keep a grip on. Starscream could feel the heat coming off of him and soaked it up. He groaned a little himself.

"I'd share and make this mutual," he told Dinobot regretfully. "But I'm fairly certain it would destroy you."

"Arrogant-" Cut off by another quick manipulation and a screech.

"_Earned_ arrogance!" Starscream reminded him sharply. "Or would you rather I leave this body and merge with _you_ instead, you insufferable cretin?" He tapped a bit harder at the case and Dinobot hissed. "There's a high probability that if _I_ go anywhere near that fragile, honorable little spark of yours, it will crumble." He paused and looked thoughtful, almost idly caressing the casing. "Or I could just absorb it. I've never actually _tried_," he mused speculatively. "It might be possible. But the probability of your dying is much higher otherwise, and I need you alive for now. Who knows though? Maybe the glorious feeling of your spark against a _god's_ will be beyond anything you ever have or ever will know, and it will be enough for you to die happily when your spark crumbles."

He paused again, never once ceasing to manipulate the spark casing inside Dinobot.

"But in the other possible case of your death, I imagine it'd be a great honor for you to feed me so directly like that and literally become _part_ of me."

Dinobot sneered, though Starscream couldn't see it.

"You c-consider yourself _godly_ now, d-do you?"

"_No!_" Starscream screeched, a particularly enthusiastic scratch forcing Dinobot to scream in pain. "I _am_ a god! A fallen god, a god without a body of my own, forced to wander the stars and bide my time, but I _am_ a god! I've been all but forgotten for _too long_-!"

Dinobot made a strangled sound, and Starscream redirected his attention, smirking, suddenly calm again.

"Are we impatient?" he teased, simultaneously with voice and hands. Dinobot made a sound not unlike a howl, and all but shook.

"F-fraaag _off_!"

"Shall we continue discussing the primary differences between the glorious Decepticons and their errant descendents?" He lazily touched, tapped, scratched, and soothed the heavy spark casing in Dinobot's chest. "Or would you rather I go and 'bother' your allies? None of them quite as interesting I suppose, but they'd do..." He scratched the casing particularly deeply and Dinobot screamed, circuits crackling slightly. "Or I could go and make another attempt at the Predacons! My best hope at a new era of Decepticon glory _would_ be them, if only they weren't so stupid and unambitious..."

Dinobot screeched again, voice crackling with the strain on his systems. Starscream looked down at him curiously.

"I can't see your face," he murmured. "Are you really so close? I wonder if I could tell, even if I did see your face... I thought it was usually longer. Being immortal does skew perceptions a bit though... but it's been so long..." He scoffed slightly, and Dinobot couldn't manage to gather enough of his mind up to fling back a suitable insult. "These bodies are difficult to interpret anyway. Though... you're warm..."

Starscream pressed closer, reveling in the heat coming off of Dinobot's form. The raptor was panting to expel the heat as best he could, but there was only so much that could be done once the coolant wasn't enough to keep him at a reasonable temperature.

"Very warm," Starscream repeated quietly. Dinobot couldn't manage anything more than an unintelligible groan. "But if we keep this up, you'll be seriously damaged. And if you're damaged, you have to explain _how_ you got damaged, and I don't care to deal with mortals and their foolish attempts at keeping me from what I want."

Everything was growing hazy for Dinobot, optics already long offline, Starscream's already distorted voice growing more warped, and his spark pulsing frantically at every vibration against its protective casing.

"So, as reluctant as I am to let my pet go, I suppose I must, for now."

A rapid staccato was tapped out and Dinobot screamed, joints sparking, fanged mouth open wide. Starscream talked still, not bothering to compete with volume. Dinobot couldn't hear anything anyway.

"I will tell you one thing though..."

Dinobot's spark released a shock of energy, crashing through every system connected to it and overloading them nearly simultaneously.

"I lied. You wouldn't make even a halfway decent Decepticon."

Dinobot's systems rapidly shut down to conserve energy, though he struggled against it, not wanting to be left any more to Starscream's nonexistent mercy. With one last tired whirr, Dinobot went into stasis lock, going limp against the ground.

Starscream studied him for minutes before moving, slowly extricating his appendages from the warrior, then prodding at Dinobot's prone form experimentally. Finally, he seemed to decide, and took the sword up, turning it a bit to examine. Satisfied, he took a laser scalpel from subspace and activated it, working while he talked to the unconscious Dinobot. It didn't matter to him. He was used to talking without an audience.

"A _lousy_ Decepticon," he repeated. "But at least you have enough sense to _attempt_ to stay awake." He grinned a little. "Though you're a fool for thinking you could. If I want you asleep you'll go to sleep. Hmm." The high-pitched buzzing of the laser shut off and Starscream admired his work before returning it to Dinobot. He leaned in closer, examining his face with apparent glee.

"However," he murmured. "You'll make an excellent Autobot, my pet." He licked Dinobot's face once with Waspinator's tongue before standing again, looking down at him.

"After all, 'an army is only as good as its enemies', is it not? And believe me, you'll be _excellent_ for my new Decepticon army to sharpen their teeth on. I'd accept no one less." Waspinator's body spasmed. "I'll come back for you once I've made all the preparations, of course. Or maybe you'll find me. Won't that be entertaining?"

Abruptly, a bright sphere of light, Starscream's spark, ejected from Waspinator and floated, leaving the body to collapse in a heap of circuitry and unconsciousness. Starscream laughed, speeding off into the atmosphere again.

Waspinator lay unconscious on the ground, and wouldn't regain all functions for quite some time. Dinobot's systems were just starting to cycle through, and his hand twitched, brushing against his sword that Starscream had placed on the ground next to him.

Etched deeply into the hilt was an Autobrand.


End file.
